Apple's iPhone climbs to 31% share of US smartphone market

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
A new analysis claims the iPhone made up 30.7 percent of the U.S. smartphone market and 14 percent of the mobile market in the first quarter of 2012.

comScore noted Apple's steady upward climb when it released on Tuesday quarterly data from its MobiLens service, which surveyed 30,000 mobile subscribers users.

Apple's share of the smartphone market grew 1.1 percent when compared to the fourth quarter of 2011. The figures were up 0.5 percent from Apple's three-month average from February.

The Cupertino, Calif., company's growth was outpaced by the Google Android platform, which grew 3.7 percent sequentially to reach 51 percent market share.

Research in Motion and Microsoft lost out during the quarter. The BlackBerry maker fell from 16 percent in December 2011 to 12.3 percent in the March quarter, while Windows Phone maker watched its market share slip from 4.7 percent to 3.9 percent during the same period.

comScore March 2012
Source: comScore

According to the research, Apple was the third-largest handset maker in the U.S. during the March quarter. Samsung took the top spot from the survey with 26 percent, up 0.7 percent from the previous quarter. LG came in second place with 19.3 percent share. Motorola and HTC trailed Apple in fourth and fifth place, respectively.

Apple announced last month sales of 35.1 million iPhones during the March quarter.

Estimates have disagreed as to whether Samsung or Apple took the top spot among global smartphone makers fro the quarter. Strategy Analytics and IDC see Samsung as having won out, while IHS iSuppli believes Samsung shipped just 32 million smartphones.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 57
    palegolaspalegolas Posts: 1,362member


    Incredible numbers. What a crazy world we're living in. 35 million units...


     


    I think share figures always should be presented with actual user figures as well. A decline in percentage for one part might look like someone is loosing customers when it's not the case. The whole smartphone market is growing, right? It just means that the one that see a decline in share isn't growing as fast as the others. It might still be healthy business though.


     


    I'd like the following data accompanying the share percentage:


    Share: X%


    Change in share: +-X%


    Number of users: X


    Change in number of users: X

  • Reply 2 of 57
    mgleetmgleet Posts: 28member
    Correct me if I'm bad at math, but I don't think that T-Mobile has enough customers to offset Apple's majority (not plurality) at AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Especially not enough to kick Apple to 31%.
  • Reply 3 of 57
    bazoombabazoomba Posts: 1member


    Remember when the iPhone was announced and Steve Jobs hoped to claim 1% of the hand-held market? 5 years later and it is 14 times the initial goal.

  • Reply 4 of 57
    blitz1blitz1 Posts: 451member


    1% of the handheld market which means including the feature phones

    Which still does not say that this isn't an incredible feat. Kudos!

  • Reply 5 of 57
    macky the mackymacky the macky Posts: 4,801member


    Looking at the chart, there's been a total inversion with the previous OS leaders now at the bottom and those who were not part of the old boy's club, being at the top.

  • Reply 6 of 57
    just_mejust_me Posts: 590member


    How the heck does google have 50%+. I rarely see android. Mostly iphones. 4S at that

  • Reply 7 of 57
    jonoromjonorom Posts: 293member
    mgleet wrote: »
    Correct me if I'm bad at math, but I don't think that T-Mobile has enough customers to offset Apple's majority (not plurality) at AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Especially not enough to kick Apple to 31%.

    I share your scepticIsm, but it is true that 75% of AT&T's iPhone sales last quarter we're to existing iPhone owners. Depending on what happened to all those old 3GS models, new iPhone subscribers on AT&T could be as low as 1.1M.

    It does seem that lots of the newcomers to smartphones make the mistake of buying an Android phone, as it is "just as good as" the iPhone. Samsung's copycat strategy is still working.
  • Reply 8 of 57
    drdoppiodrdoppio Posts: 1,132member


    I wonder if we will see Microsoft regaining market share in the next six months, and if it does, at whose expense... I will be surprised if the marketing effort put into Lumia doesn't pay off at least partially. However, with the release of HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy III, Nokia has a very tough battle ahead of it...

  • Reply 9 of 57
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,851member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


    How the heck does google have 50%+. I rarely see android. Mostly iphones. 4S at that



    I suspect there are many, many cheap ones lying in boxes and under beds in children's rooms.

  • Reply 10 of 57

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Macky the Macky View Post


    Looking at the chart, there's been a total inversion with the previous OS leaders now at the bottom and those who were not part of the old boy's club, being at the top.



     


     


    Could that happen again?

  • Reply 11 of 57

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


    How the heck does google have 50%+. I rarely see android. Mostly iphones. 4S at that



     


     


    I nev er see anything except iPhones.

  • Reply 12 of 57
    rabbit_coachrabbit_coach Posts: 1,114member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    I suspect there are many, many cheap ones lying in boxes and under beds in children's rooms.



    You think they can be used as baby monitors?


    So this means per baby two android phones sold. ;-D

  • Reply 13 of 57
    festerfeetfesterfeet Posts: 108member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz View Post


     


     


    Could that happen again?



    Absolutely, it could all change again, don't see significant change happening in the near future but as Apple has significant loyalty amongst it's user base, it is more likely that Google are the ones who need to look over their shoulder at this stage.

  • Reply 14 of 57
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    I wonder what the market looks like when you exclude feature phones from the line up.

    drdoppio wrote: »
    I wonder if we will see Microsoft regaining market share in the next six months, and if it does, at whose expense... I will be surprised if the marketing effort put into Lumia doesn't pay off at least partially. However, with the release of HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy III, Nokia has a very tough battle ahead of it...

    I certainly hope so because WinPh deserves to be a contender based on technical competency and usefulness. I'd certainly choose it over Android.

    I'm surprised that with RiM faltering for so long that they are still retaining the number 3 position in new smartphone OS share. And with a solid 13%, which I'm sure MS would be ecstatic to have.

    Based on the current info and trends I don't see either MS or RiM increasing their market share.
  • Reply 15 of 57
    tildeboytildeboy Posts: 9member


    I see a lot of Android phones myself, but that's because I happen to know a lot of lower income people and they are on prepaid plans.  All of them say that if the iPhone ever becomes available on a prepaid plan, they'll be on it in a minute.


     


    But yes, out of the people I know that can afford traditional mobile plans, it seems like almost all either have an iPhone or are planning to get one as soon as they are eligible for a subsidized upgrade.


     


    I've long maintained that the day Apple makes a deal with major prepaid providers is the beginning of the end for Android.

  • Reply 16 of 57
    island hermitisland hermit Posts: 6,217member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Just_Me View Post


    How the heck does google have 50%+. I rarely see android. Mostly iphones. 4S at that





    I keep thinking it must be that I don't run in the same type of circles as Android users.


     


    I've sat at many a table with different groups of people, young and old, and when the phones come out I see mostly iPhones, Blackberrys (yes) or old flip phones (in that order) and few, if any, Android phones.

  • Reply 17 of 57
    absolutedesignzabsolutedesignz Posts: 1,930member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Tildeboy View Post


    I see a lot of Android phones myself, but that's because I happen to know a lot of lower income people and they are on prepaid plans.  All of them say that if the iPhone ever becomes available on a prepaid plan, they'll be on it in a minute.


     


    But yes, out of the people I know that can afford traditional mobile plans, it seems like almost all either have an iPhone or are planning to get one as soon as they are eligible for a subsidized upgrade.


     


    I've long maintained that the day Apple makes a deal with major prepaid providers is the beginning of the end for Android.



    "Once the iPhone is on more than just AT&T it is the beginning of the end for Android." (Everyone - Circa 2009/2010)


     


    Moving goalposts much?

  • Reply 18 of 57
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member

    I keep thinking it must be that I don't run in the same type of circles as Android users.

    I've sat at many a table with different groups of people, young and old, and when the phones come out I see mostly iPhones, Blackberrys (yes) or old flip phones (in that order) and few, if any, Android phones.
    That is likely part of it, but probably more because most Android users aren't buying top-end smartphones with that platform, but feature phones that run Android. They get some internet capabilities but they don't use them as much as iPhone users. Perhaps those buying the Galaxy S II are using their phones and buying apps as much as iPhone users, but those clearly aren't the majority of units sold.
  • Reply 19 of 57
    drdoppiodrdoppio Posts: 1,132member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post



    I wonder what the market looks like when you exclude feature phones from the line up.

    I certainly hope so because WinPh deserves to be a contender based on technical competency and usefulness. I'd certainly choose it over Android.

    I'm surprised that with RiM faltering for so long that they are still retaining the number 3 position in new smartphone OS share. And with a solid 13%, which I'm sure MS would be ecstatic to have.

    Based on the current info and trends I don't see either MS or RiM increasing their market share.


    I was under the impression that feature phones are already excluded from the statistics. If I have to guess, I'd say that lower-end smartphones probably account for half of Android's share and perhaps less than 10% of iOS's...


     


    Regarding RiM, I have very little hope for them. I saw their latest efforts recently and they're innovative, but that's hardly the main ingredient in market success -- inertia in the consumer's mindset, or the latest fashion -- alternatively pricing -- are more important factors.


     


    I can imagine WP grabbing some current smartphone users from Android, which has a more volatile user base, but not many from iOS. On the other hand, first time smartphone buyers who get WP would probably be choosing it over an iPhone as the second choice, so that may limit iOS expansion. The second factor is less important in the US where smartphone penetration is high, and more so in growing markets such as China.

  • Reply 20 of 57
    tildeboytildeboy Posts: 9member

    Quote:

    Originally Posted by AbsoluteDesignz View Post


    "Once the iPhone is on more than just AT&T it is the beginning of the end for Android." (Everyone - Circa 2009/2010)


     


    Moving goalposts much?



    Well I never said that, so your implication is a little disingenuous.

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